Many believe the River flows silent and has nothing to say. That is not true. The River speaks to us everyday, in many ways. The River speaks in sign language: clean or contaminated water, healthy or dying fish, natural flows or damaging floods.
It is up to us to read these signs and use them to give the River, all rivers, a voice.
That is what this blog is about: you and I giving the Delaware River, its streams, and all who depend upon it a voice that is heard, honored, and respected.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

November 19, 2009, on behalf of 5 citizen environmental organizations including the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, National Wildlife Federation, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Delaware Nature Society, Clean Water Action the Delaware Riverkeeper Network's River Resources Law Clinic filed an independent legal challenge in Federal in District Court in New Jersey against the Delaware Deepening proposal. The groups also filed in Delaware District Court to intervene in the legal action brought against the deepening by the State of Delaware.

When the Army Corps announced that it was going to proceed with the Deepening project at this time, it was announcing its intent to violate no less than 7 federal environmental and community protection laws as well as state environmental and community protection laws.
In addition to being a flagrant violation of state and federal law, the decision by the Army Corps to move forward with the deepening without needed Delaware and New Jersey permits and approvals is a stripping of state environmental protection authority that cannot be allowed to stand.

While it is critically important that both NJ and DE have filed to challenge the actions of the Army Corps, the legal challenges they brought were much more focused on the states’ rights issues. NJ’s action was broader than Delaware’s and included more environmental claims to be sure, but neither included the full array of environmental harms that is included in our litigation.

The Delaware River provides the foundation for our healthy economy and healthy communities. Our environmental protection laws and government agencies are meant to protect the River and environment for us all.

This is not about jobs versus the environment – this is about protecting both.

The Army Corps has made clear that the Delaware deepening project will not increase the quantities of goods that come up the River – the benefits are only increased efficiencies, not more tonnage.

The undocumented claims of jobs being made by Pennsylvania are not the result of the deepening project, they are the result of other port development projects.

Deepening the Delaware puts at risk a wide array of fish, shellfish, and wildlife that are critical for providing hundreds of millions of dollars of income and jobs to our communities, region and nationwide.

The oysters that the deepening threatens provides up to $3 million dollars of economic benefit to our region.

The horseshoe crabs that the deepening threatens is not only critical for ensuring vaccines and medical devices are safe for use by humans, but supports a $150 million biomedical industry and is the basis of $34 million of ecotourism income to our region.

The commercial and recreational fisheries of our Estuary, Bay and River is another multi-million dollar industry that supports many, many jobs directly and indirectly. For example, in Pennsylvania, fishing activities are credited with generating $4.7 billion per year in revenue and supporting 43,000 jobs -- while this is not only from the Delaware Estuary, it gives a sense of how important fishing is economically to our watershed states. Sale of fishing licenses generates tens of millions for the budgets of our river states including $19 million in PA, $4 million in NJ and $200,000 in DE.

The deepening project, according to the record, will not create jobs. But it will harm them.

At the same time it threatens drinking water supplies as well as wetlands that are important for not only environmental protection but providing storm protection to our communities.

That the Army Corps of Engineers awould be willing to break the law in order to press forward a dangerous project that threatens our environment, our drinking water, and all of the jobs that depend upon clean water and healthy fish, oyster and birding communities of the Delaware river is unconscionable. When Government is willing to break the law, citizens must rise up and defend it – that is what we are doing – defending our right to clean water, clean air, fish we can catch and feed our children, wetlands and floodplains that protect us from pollution and floods.

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Salem Nuclear Generation Station is the single largest predator in Delaware Bay. It is allowed to kill indiscriminately on a daily basis. Every year Salem kills over 3 billion Delaware River fish including:

Over 59 million Blueback Herring Over 77 million WeakfishOver 134 million Atlantic Croaker Over 412 million White Perch Over 448 million Striped Bass Over 2 billion Bay Anchovy

This is no small impact, not to the River and not to the commercial and recreational fishermen who are subject to size and catch limits while Salem is allowed to continue killing indiscriminately.

If Salem were retrofitted with cooling towers it could reduce those fish kills by 95% -- 95%!!!!

But rather than invest in this existing and proven technology, the plant's owners have spent years fighting the requirement legally.

Now, there is an effort to extend the life of Salem, originally scheduled to shut down in just a few short years, by another 50 years.

This is not about nuclear power versus not nuclear power.

This is about whether or not to stop the needless fish slaughter.

At this point there are two ways to stop it -- shut down the plant on time or put in place cooling towers.

the Delaware Riverkeeper

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) is the only citizen action organization operating throughout the entire Delaware River Watershed, which includes the Catskill Mountains of NY, Western NJ, Eastern PA, and nearly all of DE, speaking and working for both its protection and its restoration.
The Delaware Riverkeeper is an individual who is the voice of the River, championing the rights of the River and its streams as members of our community which must be given priority consideration -- after all, without them we do not exist. The Delaware Riverkeeper is assisted by seasoned professionals and a network of members, volunteers and supporters. Together they form DRN, and together they stand as vigilant protectors and defenders of the River, its tributaries and watershed.
DRN is committed to restoring the watershed's natural balance where it has been lost and ensuring its preservation where it still exists.